Latest news with #SugarbirdLady
West Australian
07-08-2025
- General
- West Australian
RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum volunteers breathe new life into Sugarbird Lady's Beechcraft baron
While the Sugarbird Lady's Mooney VH-REM aircraft is set to fly into Broome in August, Clive Green and Brian Jones from the Royal Australia Air Force Association Aviation Heritage Museum have been working diligently to breathe new life into another one of her aircrafts — a Beechcraft baron. Mr Jones said it had been a long process requiring thousands of hours to restore the aircraft that had fallen into disrepair after being used for spare parts to repair other Beechcraft barons and sitting at the museum for around a decade. 'It was stripped, basically, of all the useful parts, including some of its structural components,' he said. 'The entire interior was stripped — no floor, no upholstery, no seats, no roof lining, no cockpit, no flight controls. It was just a jumble of wires and bits and pieces. It was fit for the wrecker's yard. 'It finished up in our carpark and sat there for about 10 years, minus its wings . . . .unloved for an awful long time. 'We're now approaching three and a half thousand hours in physical work, just Clive and myself. But now the aircraft looks like it flew straight out of the 1970s, fresh off the manufacturing lot. 'It'll never fly again but it's going to look like a brand new aircraft when we hand it over. 'We've taken it right back to the way it looked in the '70s when it was flying with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Multiple layers of paint removed — right back to bare aluminium. 'When you look at that aircraft, for all intents and purposes, it looks like it could take off in the next half an hour.' However, the restoration effort, which has been ongoing since late 2021, has been no easy feat with Mr Jones spending hundreds of hours tracking down spare parts to bring the aircraft back to its former glory. 'I contacted every operator in Australia that was using Barons. I must've rung 35 companies and sent out dozens of emails. I spent probably 500 to 600 hours on the internet searching,' he said. 'Barons have been produced since 1961. They seem to go forever. When one reaches the end of its service life, it's immediately snapped up and all the usable parts and pieces go to keeping other Barons in the air. 'It's just impossible to get spare bits and pieces for them.' As the aircraft represents a tangible link to an important part of WA history, Mr Jones said he couldn't let it fall into further disrepair at the museum. 'No one asked me to do this. I just decided we've got to have a go because it was flown by Western Australia's leading aviatrix,' he said. 'To me, it was a no-brainer that this aircraft had to be preserved for future generations. I just felt it couldn't be allowed to fall into complete disrepair and finish up on the rubbish dump. 'This aircraft is a tangible link to the life of Robin Miller-Dicks. She flew it regularly. The last time she flew it was about two months before she passed.' He said the aircraft had already drawn intrigue, especially from young women and mothers. 'Robin Miller-Dicks couldn't get a job in her dad's (Horrie Miller) airline because of the prejudice against women. That just shows how hard it was back then,' Mr Jones said. 'At our little workshop, we get a lot of young mums coming through. They've never heard of Robin Miller and when I give them a brief outline of her life story, they're absolutely amazed. I tell them, 'Go home tonight and Google Robin Miller.' It's an empowering story for young women.' Mr Jones hopes to finish with the project sometime next year with aims to put it on display at the museum but will need to find room for the deceivingly large aircraft. 'It's going to require its own hangar, but I envisage we can go into promoting the aircraft and the history to schools in Perth, bring in kids and give them project material because the younger generation don't know anything about Robin Miller-Dicks and her legacy,' he said. 'The aircraft will last another 50 years now. It's all for the edification of Western Australians.'
West Australian
31-07-2025
- General
- West Australian
Sugarbird Lady plane to soar again for inaugural Notre Dame award in her namesake
The Sugarbird Lady's Mooney VH-REM aircraft will fly into Broome on Thursday August 14, coinciding with the presentation of the inaugural Sugarbird Lady award at Notre Dame University's Broome Campus. Robin Miller-Dicks' aircraft will fly from NSW with two pilots, via Birdsville, Alice Springs, Halls Creek and Derby before landing at Broome International Airport. On August 15, the inaugural Sugarbird Lady Award will be awarded to a Notre Dame Broome Campus nursing student, receiving $1000 a certificate and book detailing Ms Miller-Dicks' life, presented by Royal Australian Air Force Association of WA director Charles Page. The following day on August 16 there will be a wreath laying at Ms Miller-Dicks' grave at Broome Cemetery at 10am led by Father Liam Ryan and organised by RAAFA WA and the Lions Club of Broome. Ms Miller-Dicks' younger sister Marie Megaw will also attend the events over the weekend. Members of the public are invited and may make floral tributes. The Mooney VH-REM aircraft will leave Broome on August 17.
West Australian
26-07-2025
- Health
- West Australian
The Sugarbird Lady: Famous RFDS nurse's restored plane to land in Broome
As WA battled a polio outbreak in the late 1960s, Robin Miller-Dicks took to the skies, flying solo across the North West to deliver thousands of vaccines to remote communities, helping eradicate the disease. To disguise the bitter taste, she handed each child a sugar cube with the vaccine, earning her the name the Sugarbird Lady. Now, nearly 50 years after her premature death, the plane she once flew is being restored and is set to land in Broome on August 14. Although the polio vaccine had been available for over a decade in 1967, administering it in remote communities in WA's North West had become a major challenge for the WA Government. Armed with her newly obtained commercial pilot's licence and a bold idea, 27-year-old Miller-Dicks went to the Health Department with an extraordinary offer they couldn't refuse — she would fly her personal plane solo, administering the vaccine to remote communities. Borrowing the money to buy a second-hand Cessna 182, Ms Miller-Dicks then spent the next two years flying around the Kimberley and Pilbara doing exactly as she promised — administering more than 37,000 doses of the life-saving drug entirely by herself. 'You keep long hours, eat any time, and land on some pretty rocky old strips, but I love the work,' she told Australian Women's Weekly in September 1967. 'I always wear slacks or a dress. If I appear in a white uniform and veil, the children get frightened and think I'm going to hurt them. It's hopeless, anyway, trying to keep a white uniform clean with all that red dust about.' After completing the immunisation program in 1969 and with more than 69,200 air kilometres of experience under her belt, Ms Miller-Dicks was offered a position with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. But the Sugarbird Lady's story doesn't end there, with the pioneer servicing the region for years to come. One remarkable account of her daring endeavours involves Ms Miller-Dicks delivered a baby — once again single-handed — in mid-air between the Great Sandy Desert and Marble Bar. 'We weren't in the air for more than a quarter of an hour when there was a shrill scream from the rear seat. I looked around and there was the baby's head already showing,' she told Walkabout magazine in July 1972. 'I set the Baron on to automatic pilot, grabbed linen and plastic sheets, and a few other things, tilted back the rear seat, and prepared the frightened little girl for delivery.' Another time she flew a plane from Paris to Perth but was jailed in Saudi Arabia and put under armed guard for violating the country's air space. 'The main reason they gaoled us was that I was a woman pilot, something hitherto unheard of in their country. Highly suspicious, they thought. Also, my naked body didn't help, either,' she told Walkabout of that madcap adventure. According to Ms Miller-Dicks, her choice of attire, a mini-skirt, was the equivalent of wearing a birthday suit to the Saudis. 'Consequently, I was not even to be looked upon by their women, who really cover themselves.' After spending three nights locked up, the group she was with was given the all clear to leave the country. But she was then told the Emir wanted her for his personal harem. 'Tell him to go to hell,' she was reported to say by Walkabout. Luckily, it was just a distasteful April Fool's joke and Ms Miller-Dicks was allowed to leave and return to Perth. In 1971 she published her autobiography, Flying Nurse, detailing her trailblazing career up to that point. In 1973 she finished sixth in the famous transcontinental Powder Puff Derby women's air race in the United States, after marrying Harold Dicks, with whom she worked with at the RFDS, earlier that year. She also won numerous awards and accolades throughout her life, receiving the Nancy Bird (Walton) award as Australia's woman pilot of the year in 1970 and a diploma of merit by the Associazione Nazionale Infermieri in Italy in 1969. But Ms Miller-Dicks' incredible and service-driven life was cut short in 1975 by cancer at just 35. She was buried in Broome where she spent her early schooldays and where her parents — author Mary Durack and aviator Horrie Miller — had a winter home. In 1976, she was posthumously awarded the Paul Tissandier diploma by the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale and the Brabazon cup by the Women Pilots' Association of Great Britain. The Beech Baron aircraft that Ms Miller-Dicks flew with the RFDS is now being restored at the Aviation Heritage Museum by volunteers Brian Jones and Clive Green and is due to fly in to Broome on August 14. The Broome Lions Club will do a wreath-laying at Ms Miller-Dicks gravesite the following day. Even though Ms Miller-Dicks died 50 years ago, her legacy can still be felt throughout the State. This year the inaugural Sugarbird Lady award will be presented to a nursing student at Notre Dame Broome Campus who intends to undertake placement in the Kimberley and Pilbara. There is another award in her name, the Robin Miller award for nursing students at Notre Dame in Fremantle who intend to undertake placement with the RFDS. Displays commemorating Ms Miller-Dicks' work can also be found across the State including at Jandakot Airport, Perth Airport, Royal Perth Hospital's memorial room, the WA State Museum and the Aviation Heritage Museum. In April, award-winning WA author Dianne Wolfer also published a book on Ms Miller-Dicks' exploits, titled, Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady. 'Robin Miller Dicks was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to the service of others and her remarkable achievements deserve to be honoured,' RFDS WA director of community relations Rebecca Maddern said. 'As a nurse and pilot, she made 450 visits to remote towns and communities in the Kimberley to administer more than 37,000 polio vaccine doses on sugar cubes.' 'Robin's legacy lives on in the primary health programs that continue to be delivered by the RFDS in regional WA.' Ms Miller-Dicks is remembered not only as the Sugarbird Lady but as a pioneer for women in Australian aviation. 'I feel I am one of the few lucky females in the world who enjoys doing her job. I like flying, and it's something to know that I'm also doing a worthwhile job . . . It's my whole life,' she told Walkabout magazine in 1972. The Sugarbird Lady is long gone, but her legacy is still flying high.
